Tag: mentoring

Onrec has conducted its own research on this topic – and has a full report on its website. As this houses all their exclusive stats, you’ll really want to head there for a full and insightful read.

They explore:

How many people experience such regrets (this may surprise!)

The top 10 career regrets

Gender disparities

The actual risks that people wish they’d taken

Job satisfaction levels

The percentage of people whose jobs incorporate their ‘passions’

Alongside whether or not respondents feel they’ve left it too late to make a career change, among other topics.

Let’s take a look at those most common career regrets:

Out of respect for the exclusivity of this survey, we’ll only share five of the ten 10 regrets today. These include:

Not ‘taking more initiative’

A lack of mentorship or guidance

Being too safe and ‘not taking more chances’

Not keeping up a personal network

Failing to leave a job you dislike sooner

What makes the findings so interesting:

Understanding others’ regrets can help you explore your own concerns and, potentially, avoid making the same mistakes in future. It can also help you to think more deeply about your career priorities. This is incredibly useful when deciding which industries you want to pursue, the jobs you should apply for and even the employers and teams you want to work with.

The above items aren’t necessarily those regrets you’d most expect to see and they may not have been topics you’ve ever considered. When did you last analyse how much initiative you take in your work? Or how much guidance you’ve had to get you to where you are today?

How to use these insights to your advantage…

Read the full list and see which items you identify with – both from past experience and what you most want to avoid.

For each item that concerns you, ask yourself what can you do to take control of this risk right now.

Make sure you stay smart. For example, leaving a job you dislike without having a better alternative lined up can leave you with yet another form of regret! Getting started with your job search while you’re still employed is usually a smarter option.

Tap into those you trust. By their nature, career regrets are personal and you’ll have to make your own decisions about what’s right for you. However, consider item 2 above. Where possible, seek out the advice and insights of trusted and experienced people. This may also include your family, friends and peers as well as industry professionals, including recruitment consultants who specialise in your target field. The REC will help you to identify professionally accredited Recruitment Agencies local to you.

Employers can benefit from these findings by introducing cross-generational mentorship programmes, according to the study’s authors at Myers-Briggs. It’s additionally argued such an approach could increase engagement and retention levels.

There’s still room for improvement:

Let’s not forget the rest of our workforce. As much as it’s great to hear that we could all grow increasingly happy and well at work over time, who wouldn’t like to feel better now?

Alongside considering introducing and/or participating in mentorship programmes, and building our relationships with our colleagues, we need to look at how else we can improve our wellbeing levels.

Gen Z: career predictions

This could be a highly mobile employee group. More than 1/2 (55%) intend to hold their first professional role for less than 2 years.

Staff retention tools could make all the difference to Gen Z workers. In fact, more than 70% of employees would remain in their job for up to 5 years if certain benefits were in place.

The most popular benefits include training and mentorship opportunities (76%), flexible working options (63%), and the potential for home working (48%). Although, they may not always want to use the latter. We’ll return to this topic shortly!

Prospective employees also want to see more job details provided up-front in job descriptions (68%).

Gen Z: blurred lines

The boundaries between work and play may be fuzzier for post-millennial employees. Many (65%) perceive a ‘fun environment’ to be a core component of a positive workplace culture. Conversely, only 22% of Baby Boomers (workers aged 55 and above) agree.

It’s a sociable group and 81% say communal areas are important at work.

A mere 8% of workers think they would perform better working from home (whereas the national average is 20%).

Many candidates value friendships at work (43% versus 22% of Baby Boomers).

A reminder about age discrimination…

These are fantastic insights for employers looking to attract a diverse workforce. Naturally, this type of data will always be somewhat of a generalisation and it’s important to get to know the specific needs and wants of all prospective employees – something an expert Recruitment Consultant can assist with!

In addition, it’s also vital that businesses remain aware of age discrimination laws. LawDonut has one of the best FAQ guides we’ve seen on this subject.